Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

One can forgive but one should never forget.

Forgiving is forgetting, in spite of remembering.

You can always forgive, you just can't really forget.

How can you forgive if you can’t remember to forget?

...forgiving is not the same as forgetting.

What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forget?

Heart-aches are forgotten, tears lose their bitterness, and like a leaf of lavendar in a store of linen, so does Memory make life sweet.

Forgiving the people that hurt us most allows us to heal from the wounds they left.

Once we have forgiven, however, we get a new freedom to forget. This time forgetting is a sign of health; it is not a trick to avoid spiritual surgery. We can forget because we have been healed. But even if it is easier to forget after we forgive, we should not make forgetting a test of our forgiving. The test of forgiving lies with healing the lingering pain of the past, not with forgetting the past has ever happened.

Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory.

When you haven't forgiven those who've hurt you, you turn back against your future. When you do forgive, you start walking forward.

I can forgive, I just can't forget.

You'll remember someone who broke your heart, and you'll think to yourself, 'Oh yes, I remember how that feels.' But you can't.

There are some hurts that we experience that can be forgiven but we won't forget them.

Sometimes you can't forgive, but you try to forget.

One of my biggest lessons in life is, we heal at the speed of our forgiveness.

When we have painful memories from hurting experiences, we may feel justified in holding on to the resentment. But resentment is corrosive. It doesn't affect the person we feel anger toward, it destroys the host.

The only way to heal the pain which will not heal itself is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness heals the memory's vision. ... You set a prisoner free, but you discover the real prisoner was yourself.

They hurt you. You hurt 'em back. Or maybe it is the other way around. Whatever. Someday you might find a way to forgive each other. But it won't be like it used to 'cause that pain never really goes away.

It's not easy to forgive. I definitely don't forget, but I do forgive and I think that you should.

Forgiving is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting go.

In small letters, someone has written NEVER FORGET on one of the slats. I know it's supposed to be a pledge, but it feels like a curse. Don't we have to forget some of it? Don't we have to forget this feeling? If we don't, how will we live?

No more tears now; I will think about revenge.

Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future.

When you can't remember why you're hurt, that's when you're healed. When you have to work real hard to re-create the pain, and you can't quite get there, that's when you're better.